Makaton Signing

The 27th June to 3rd July is Deaf Blind Awareness week.

At Bourne View we had a couple of lessons in learning Makaton. This is a visual language designed to aid understanding for people that cannot hear. A sign can give another clue if the audio sense is reduced. The residents all had quite a laugh learning all the different signs, and then trying to remember them. We put our learning into action by rehearsing the signs Tea, Coffee, Milk and Sugar. Then we were ready to sign our requests to our lovely afternoon waitress Lyndsey (who had been given a crash course in Makaton) when the tea trolley came round. Thankfully, we were all understood and here you can Terry signing ‘Milk’.

What did make us laugh was when we quickly had to learn the sign for ‘Goat’ as one of our residents has goats’ milk in her tea!